Real Madrid
The club
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol were founded on 6 March 1902 as Madrid Football Club. The title "Real", meaning royal, was bestowed by King Alfonso XIII in 1920. The club have played at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium since 1947; current capacity is 83,186. The home kit is white, chosen in honour of the English amateurs Corinthian, and the club are known as Los Blancos and Los Merengues. Real Madrid were a founding member of La Liga in 1929 and have never been relegated. In 2024 they became the first football club to make one billion euros in revenue.
The president is Florentino Pérez, in his second term since June 2009. The head coach is José Mourinho, back for a second spell: the board agreed his appointment in June 2026 on a contract running until 30 June 2029, effective from 13 July 2026, the day preseason began. He replaced Álvaro Arbeloa and joined from Benfica at the age of 63. His first spell, from 2010 to 2013, brought the 2011/12 La Liga title, a Copa del Rey and a Supercopa de España in direct competition with Pep Guardiola's Barcelona.
Recent seasons
2023/24 was a double season under Carlo Ancelotti: a record-extending 36th La Liga title with 95 points from 38 matches, 29 wins, 8 draws and a single defeat, 87 scored and 26 conceded, plus a 15th European Cup, won 2-0 against Borussia Dortmund at Wembley on 1 June 2024 with goals from Dani Carvajal and Vinícius Júnior. Jude Bellingham led the club's La Liga scoring with 19 goals in his first season.
2024/25 brought Kylian Mbappé on a free transfer from Paris Saint-Germain, the UEFA Super Cup (2-0 against Atalanta) and the first FIFA Intercontinental Cup (3-0 against Pachuca), but domestically Real Madrid finished second on 84 points behind Barcelona's 88, lost the Copa del Rey final 3-2 to Barcelona on 26 April and the Supercopa final 5-2 to the same opponent, and went out of the Champions League quarter-finals 5-1 on aggregate to Arsenal. Mbappé scored 31 league goals and 44 in all competitions. Ancelotti left on 25 May 2025 as the most decorated manager in the club's history with 15 trophies, and Real Madrid lost the Club World Cup semi-final 4-0 to Paris Saint-Germain that July under his successor Xabi Alonso.
2025/26 was trophyless, the club's first such season since 2020/21. Alonso departed on 12 January 2026 and Álvaro Arbeloa took over. Real Madrid again finished second, 86 points from 27 wins, 5 draws and 6 defeats, behind champions Barcelona, whom they beat 2-1 in October and lost to 2-0 in May. In the Champions League they beat Benfica 3-1 on aggregate in the knockout play-offs and Manchester City 5-1 in the round of sixteen before losing the quarter-final 6-4 on aggregate to Bayern Munich. They lost the Supercopa final 3-2 to Barcelona and went out of the Copa del Rey in the round of sixteen. Mbappé scored 25 league goals and 42 in all.
Honours and landmarks
La Liga champions a record 36 times, most recently in 2023/24, and runners-up 27 times, including in each of the last two seasons. Copa del Rey winners 20 times, most recently in 2022/23, and runners-up a record 21 times. Supercopa de España winners 13 times, most recently in 2024. European Cup and Champions League winners a record 15 times: 1955/56, 1956/57, 1957/58, 1958/59, 1959/60, 1965/66, 1997/98, 1999/2000, 2001/02, 2013/14, 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2021/22 and 2023/24. UEFA Cup winners twice, in 1984/85 and 1985/86. UEFA Super Cup winners a record six times. FIFA Club World Cup winners a record five times, the old Intercontinental Cup three times, and the new FIFA Intercontinental Cup once, in 2024.
The five consecutive European Cups from 1956 to 1960 and the tenth title, La Décima, in 2014 are the club's defining landmarks; the 15th, in 2024, was recognised by Guinness World Records as a record-extending haul.
Notable scorelines
The record win is 11-1 against Barcelona in the 1943 Copa del Generalísimo. The record league win is 11-2 against Elche in the 1959/60 La Liga, and the record European win is 9-0 against B 1913 of Denmark in the 1961/62 European Cup. The record away league win is 8-2 at Deportivo La Coruña in 2014/15. The record defeat is 1-8 away to Español in the 1929/30 La Liga; the record home defeat is 0-6 to Athletic Bilbao in 1930/31, the record cup defeat 0-6 to Valencia in the 1998/99 Copa del Rey, and the record European defeats are 0-5 to 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the 1981/82 UEFA Cup and 0-5 to Milan in the 1988/89 European Cup.
European record
No club's European record compares. Real Madrid won the first five European Cups, from 1955/56 to 1959/60, added a sixth in 1965/66, and were runners-up in 1961/62, 1963/64 and 1980/81. The modern era brought three titles between 1998 and 2002, then La Décima in 2013/14, three in a row from 2015/16 to 2017/18 — the first club to retain the Champions League — and further titles in 2021/22 and 2023/24, the fifteenth, won 2-0 against Borussia Dortmund at Wembley. The club also won the UEFA Cup back to back in 1984/85 and 1985/86 and were twice runners-up in the Cup Winners' Cup.
The last two campaigns both ended in the quarter-finals: 5-1 on aggregate to Arsenal in 2024/25, and 6-4 on aggregate to Bayern Munich in 2025/26 after a 5-1 aggregate dismantling of Manchester City in the round of sixteen. In both of those seasons Real Madrid lost their league-phase visit to Anfield, 2-0 and then 1-0, which under a new UEFA rule means Liverpool cannot be drawn at home to them in the 2026/27 league phase.
Quotes
José Mourinho on Kylian Mbappé after his hat-trick against Real Sociedad in August 2026, to BBC Sport: "He's a historical player, his World Cup record will remain forever. He's very hungry to make history at Real Madrid too. He isn't just a goalscorer, he doesn't wait for the whole team to create and then just score. He's very involved in the game. When you coach elite players like this, you don't need to coach them as individuals. You need to coach the team as a whole."
Florentino Pérez on Mourinho's return, as reported by Al Jazeera: "Proud to welcome back one of the best coaches in the world, a Madridista like Jose Mourinho."
Right now (2026-27)
José Mourinho is back in charge, thirteen years after leaving. The summer brought Marc Cucurella from Chelsea, Bernardo Silva on a free transfer from Manchester City, Ibrahima Konaté from Liverpool and Denzel Dumfries from Inter Milan, while the long-serving captain Dani Carvajal and David Alaba both left as free agents.
Mourinho's second spell began with three straight league wins: 2-1 away at Espanyol on 22 August 2026, with Jude Bellingham and the debutant Carlos Espí scoring; 4-1 at home to Real Sociedad on 26 August in front of 72,226, Kylian Mbappé scoring a hat-trick on 40, 60 and 80 minutes and Vinícius Júnior adding the other after Luka Sučić had equalised for Sociedad; and 4-0 at home to Málaga on 30 August with goals from Bellingham, Mbappé and Arda Güler. The run ended on 4 September at the Estadio La Cartuja in Seville, where the substitute Troy Parrott — a striker Mourinho himself had given two Premier League appearances at Tottenham Hotspur — scored on 81 minutes to give Real Betis a 1-0 win in front of 66,046. Carlos Espí had an acrobatic equaliser ruled out for offside, and Mbappé's injury-time penalty was saved by Álvaro Valles. Real Madrid sit second in La Liga with 9 points from 4 matches, three behind Barcelona.
In the Champions League, Real Madrid were in pot one for the league phase draw held at the end of August. Their drawn opponents and fixture list were not established from the sources read here.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Madrid_CF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Real_Madrid_CF_records_and_statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023%E2%80%9324_Real_Madrid_CF_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024%E2%80%9325_Real_Madrid_CF_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Real_Madrid_CF_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Real_Madrid_CF_season https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/6/11/jose-mourinho-named-real-madrid-coach-on-three-year-deal https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/live/ck24mej548lvt https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/live/c3n071elp7jyt https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cg7k8jpxgjzo
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.